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I have a '05 female axanthic het amel. sand boa that I was planning to use for a snow project. Ever since this boa was a baby, she has never had a strong feeding response. From records, she would eat two consecative weeks, then refuse food for the next four weeks. wash, rinse, and repeat...

Since I'm under the impression that the feeding response of the parents have a strong outcome in the feeding response of the offsprings, I plan on not using her in the my project. I have contacted the breeder that I bought her from to see if he had an axanthic females with a stronger feeding response. From his understanding, all axanthic sand boas had weak feeding responses compared to normal and amelanistic. Is this statement true?

I do not know if that is a valid statement. I have had axanthic kenyans that eat great and some that eat poorly....I have also had snows, normals, and albinos that eat great and some that eat poorly.

Just my 2 cents....

Chris
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Christopher E. Smith
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Captive Bred Herps

My personal experience has shown aneries to have a worse feeding response than other morphs. I could not confidently say it was due to the morph, though, as it may be due to a limited amount of lines that I've purchased animals from, or freak chance that the individuals I've had don't eat well, or that the people I've purchased from purposely sold off the babies that didn't eat as well. If aneries have a worse feeding response, it definitely isn't across the board, as there are definitely aneries with great feeding responses, and other morphs with horrible eating responses. Oh well, let's wait for there to be a good study that will never happen...

I haven't had that experience in my axanthic's. But I do have a albino and a normal that eats sporadically. I have a greater problem with Corns not eating.
I did question my local reptile vet about that problem. And, his response was that it depends on the area the animals originally came from, and the food sources available to them in that area. Example, such as lizards plentiful in one area but not rodents. Or, frogs plentiful but not lizards or rodents. Unless,"we" were "there" for the original capture of the snake's ancestors, there is really no way to determine what foods were available to them so we really can't tell. Further, he says their brains are hard wired invitro as to what was plentiful in "their" area. So,if we are feeding them something that is not familiar to the area they came from, they respond with a weak response to the food being offered. His suggestion was to try lizards or frogs, etc instead and then switch them over to rodents once they eat regularly. ** My hard to feed sands boas took dwarf hamster pinkies like they were candy...then I switched them over. In my collection, my axanthic's are the larger snake of almost all of them.